Rate My Professor Stephen Smith

Professor Stephen Smith is Professor of Bioresource Systems in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London. He holds the position of Head of the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Section, recognized as one of the largest and most research-active environmental engineering groups in Europe. His qualifications include BSc, PhD, MCIWM, MCIWEM, C.WEM, and CEnv. With over 30 years of research and professional experience in wastewater treatment and biosolids management, Professor Smith transitioned to Imperial College London from a senior role at Wessex Water, where he oversaw the strategic development of wastewater treatment and biosolids management processes.

Professor Smith's research specializations center on bioresource recovery from organic wastes, with a particular emphasis on the management and beneficial recycling of biosolids, such as sewage sludge, to agricultural land. He has authored over 230 scientific papers, reports, and book chapters addressing these areas. Key publications include 'Factors controlling pathogen destruction during anaerobic digestion of biowastes' published in Waste Management in 2005, and 'Influence of soil type, moisture content and biosolids application on the fate of 17beta-estradiol and 17alpha-ethinylestradiol in ground water from pastoral production' in the Journal of Applied Microbiology in 2007. Other significant works cover topics such as Cryptosporidium parvum decay in sewage sludge, trace element composition in biosolids, and the implications of agricultural recycling of biosolids for human health and the environment. Professionally, he has served as an invited expert on the End-of-Waste Criteria Panel for Biodegradable Waste from 2011 to 2013, delivered keynote speeches at conferences including the ATHENS 2012 International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management and the IWA Regional Conference on Waste and Wastewater Management in 2013, acted as Guest Editor for a Special Issue on 'Recycling Organic Wastes in Agriculture' in the journal Agriculture in 2015, and contributed an invited article on Sewage Sludge Treatment to The Water and Sewerage Journal in 2012. His contributions have advanced sustainable practices in waste management and resource recovery within environmental engineering.